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Pre-Ironic memes
Simple memes; popular objects making up the lexicon of reference humor–what you see is what you get. They do not rely on the violation of memetic conventions for their humor. The majority of ‘normie’ memes fall into this category. They are highly normative and stress the importance of ‘using the meme right’. Conventions and Forms: Impact font - positioned as bottom and top text - is the main font type used in pre-ironic memes. It has come to represent Pre-Irony. This well known and permeating hallmark can be dated back to at least 2006, in the Advice Animal Genre. It is used to set the viewer up (top text) and deliver a punchline (bottom text). The large majority of Pre-Ironic memes are singular characters well known for embodying a particular trait (Social awkwardness in Socially Awkward Penguin) or a certain idea (e.g. Good advice in Actual Advice Mallard). At first these were splayed on colourful, generic backgrounds but some memes, such as 'Good Guy Greg' used the original natural image of the character. Eventually, as the definition of an Internet Meme broadened, well known cultural images (such as the scene of Simba with his father in The Lion King) became known as memes as well. What became necessary was the addition of impact font, a very general knowledge of the context of the image, and convention as the image developed and became popular. Developing in parallel, Rage Comics are another form of popular, widely known Pre-Ironic meme. They originated in 2008 on 4chan and rely on crudely drawn characters that embody some feeling. These very quickly became separate characters, the most well known of which would include Y U No Guy, Troll, Me Gusta and Forever Alone. Male generic rage comic characters are known as Derp, and female ones as Derpina. The Rage Comic format has dwindled in popularity since perhaps 2013 though, even amongst 'normies', and lives on in the ironic, compressed counterpart Burger Time. Much more recently, ghetto memes, whilst not mainstream, are not ironic in their excessive emoji use and casual sexuality, and rely on a fluid trope for identification. Since they are not based on opposite or unexpected meanings and the trope is fairly consistent, the can be considered contemporary Pre-Ironic memes. It is postulated that Feels Guy (Wojak), may have arisen from the Rage Comic character base. Wojak certainly is drawn with more detail, however the influence of the Rage Comic characters on the function and appearance of Wojak is certainly open to speculation. This is important as Wojak is considered a pivotal embodiment of later Pre-Irony and as the predecessor to Pepe, an important diverging figure. Memetic Context - How can an image be used both pre-ironically and ironically?: Pepe is now considered a normie meme, however when it was used by autists sincerely as reaction images and 4chan post images in 2013, it was neither normie nor ironic. However its throwaway use and rapid adoption by normies in mid to late 2014 caused Pepe to 'die' and become normalised, much at the anguish of the autists. However, it is also sometimes ironically and condescendingly referred to amongst the autists as Sad Frog and is brought up in intentionally poorly made memes occasionally, so it represents a case where an image may be both ironic and pre-ironic. This brings up the question, can the same image (with the same text) used in two different contexts be categorised as different memes? The answer, upon reflection, is yes. It must depend on the creator's intentions, the memepage and the intended effect. The actual aesthetic may not change - a pre-ironic meme may be silently mocked by being posted on an Ironic Meme Page, even without any disparaging comment. Subversion: Often, when a normie meme is compressed or otherwise intentionally of poor quality, this signifies a change in its meaning - it is now an incomprehensible or distorted meme to be laughed at, or as is the case with Meta-Ironic memes, to be viewed through the lens of absurd humor. An obvious example is Ghetto SpongeBob, which frequently comes in the form of an extremely compressed image splattered with emojis and some sexual relatability. Impact font is sometimes used in Ironic memes, notably by writing 'Bottom text' in place of the punchline, thereby giving the impression of an incomplete, clumsy meme. Furthermore, the top text in such a counter-meme often sets a deceptive tone by being written in a Pre-Ironic style and the depending on the context of the meme, it could be mocking normies as a whole, or a specific group. For example, in a Bad Luck Brian meme that begins with 'Goes to friend's house', in place of 'Friend is homeless' there would simply be 'Bottom text'. This jarring effect creates awkward humor. Or in a Condescending Wonka retort starting with 'So you think Bernie Sanders doesn't understand economics?' rather than some remark such as 'Tell me more about how Trump went bankrupt four times', a 'Bottom text' serves to make absurd the tone of the image. The Bottom Text technique is not confined to popular memetic formats, but can accompany any well known image which typifies pre-ironic memes. Category:Terminology Category:Meme Theory Category:Classification